Dawna Davies and her assistant Jodi Blanchard did an exceptional job in helping us sell our home in San Luis Obispo. Dawna’s intelligence and knowledge of the business made the whole complex process easy for us to understand and navigate. What seemed like counter-intuitive advice at the start—that we should be extremely thorough in discovering any possible problems with the forty year old house and present them in advance—turned out to streamline the final transaction by building trust in potential buyers and removing the possibility of unpleasant surprises and uncertainty for us. Her contacts with a wide range of local business people who carried out many preparatory operations quickly and economically offered another unique benefit. Her tact and amiability made our numerous interactions pleasant rather than wary. And Jodi’s work in converting the box full of documents from our files into a coherent house-maintenance-history binder meticulous and creative. From start to finish our involvement with Davies Company was personally as well as financially rewarding.
- Get prequalified for a loan.This is for two reasons. (1). You will get your finances in order and records current. (2). You’ll learn what you can spend. It is critical that this is done before house hunting. Buyers have a risk of being turned down for a loan, especially in non-salaried or self-employed situations.
- Confirm source of downpayment, and make sure you have ready access to it. You may need 20% or more of the price of the property, depending on the property type, loan, and your circumstances. You will also need to budget about 2% of the price of the property as a reserve for closing costs. If you plan to make improvements to the property like painting, landscaping, carpeting or flooring, have an additional 2-10% or more of the price of the property available. Ready access to the funds means you can personally control the release of the money to escrow, to the sellers, etc. If your downpayment source is a gift, discuss the method of the gift with your lender to determine how long you should hold it in your account and/or how you will need to document the gift.
- Determine the price you are willing to pay for a property, both at time of purchase, and for monthly expenses including taxes and insurance. While this may seem obvious, with financially prudent buyers, the amount you are willing to part with every month is often less than you can actually qualify for with a lender.
- Determine if you need to have additional income from the property to afford the ownership. Do you need tenants for all or part of the property? Income from a roommate to assist financially?
- Watch the property market inventory. This can be a disappointing experience in a tight market and an overwhelming experience in a slow market. We have seen both. Focus your search, stay grounded, get specific on your needs. Your REALTOR® can target the search and screen the listing inventory for you.